Business Reply Mail

Do you know why some magazines include postcards in the middle? Or have you mailed a letter back to a company in their envelope without having to put a stamp on it? Did you ever wonder how this service works?

The Postal Service offers a service called Business Reply Mail (BRM). By opening an account with the local Post Office, a business may supply their customers with return envelopes or labels. This allows customers to send a reply via First-Class Mail or Priority Mail. The business pays the postage and a per piece fee only for the pieces returned. To ensure the postage is collected, clerks at the delivery Post Office calculate the amount due and withdraw the money from a customer account. In some cases, carriers collect the postage when they deliver the pieces to the business. Generally, BRM pieces are identified through automation process; however, the Postal Service relies on clerks and carriers to identify and hold out any BRM pieces that have not been isolated through automation.

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Recent changes in the public’s mailing habits alongside increased use of the internet to communicate with customers have led to reductions in BRM volume. This coupled with a smaller workforce with greater responsibilities may increase the risk to the Postal Service of not collecting all revenue from BRM.

Do you think a change in the way the Postal Service charges for these pieces would increase the mailing volume while also helping the Postal Service reduce work hours? Is a flat rate based on quarterly volume estimates a more attractive option? Share your thoughts on BRM.

This blog topic is hosted by the OIG's Field Financial East directorate.

Comments (50)

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My Company has moved to a new city. We have closed our PO Box as it gets delivered to new office building whereas we had to go old local PO to pick it up daily. I have renewed our BRM Acct but was wondering how to change the address on the BRM envelopes. I have thousands of pre-printed in on-hand inventory and would like to use these up if possible. I also am told that BRM mail can't be forwarded by our Change of Address on file. I still have to go to former city to pick it up. What's my best option?? Can I change address on BRM or do i have to close old one out and open a new brm in new city?

I received a form from Social Security that needed to be filled out and returned. They provided a Business Reply envelope to use. I filled out the form and mailed it, then a few weeks later got a notice that no reply had been received. I re-mailed, this time as certified mail to make sure it got there. The clerk at the post office accepted it, took the $7.50 fee, applied tracking number, etc. Then a few days later it was returned to me with notice that certified mail can't be used with BRM! Tracking showed it went to the regional center, then to the destination, then was returned. I would have gladly put a stamp on it if I knew that was needed. The clerk apparently didn't know about the rule. Now I will need to drive an hour to the SSA office to deliver the form in person, and hope benefits haven't been cut off due to lack of a reply. It seems it would have been easier for them to just deliver it instead of going to all the trouble of returning it to me.

I was mailing a Business Reply Mail envelope at my local post office. I told the clerk I wanted to send it with Certificate of Mailing. She said ,' No additional services can be added to BRM.' I've been mailing my letter for years with that service. Was I given bad information?

We have a client located in Tustin with two businesses that she dropped in an outside US Mail box 2 1/2 weeks ago and we have still not received their BRM mail? We get BRM mail from this client every single month with no problem. We called BRM and talked to Keith and he did not have either of the two envelopes missing. But Keith did just receive today a third missing envelope from another client who also mailed BRM 2 1/2 weeks ago. There was either theft or the mail carrier is setting BRM mail to the side and forgetting or misplacing it for some reason. We often have to wait five days after BRM is mailed to us to get it. This is not efficeint.

I'm returning a package. I was given a BRM card by company to attach to box. I wanted to track package, but I was told by window clerk that I couldn't add any services since I wasn't paying for postage. Is this true?

We use BRM for our donors to return their gifts to our non-profit organization. Sometimes these are three or more weeks after they write their check to us and put it in the mail. This is people's money we are talking about; money they want to come to our organization and not to sit in the post office for weeks. For the post office to hold this mail until they get ready to process it, is inexcusable! Please consider changing the policy.

We have the same problem! If the guy at our PO is on vacation our BRM mail SITS there until he returns to process it. Ridiculous! Plus, if a donor puts a stamp on our BRM the PO still charges us the BRM postage rate for that envelope - we have to APPLY to get that postage back (instead of them simply not charging our account for the envelope that has postage affixed to it). And it costs $5 bucks to submit the form to get that refund.

We have had a BRM for many years and recently started using a new printer. We supplied them with our current BRM and now I am being asked for a "special zip code" not on the BRM, but I have no idea what they are asking for.
Thank you.

I commented on another post about the fact that I work in a station without a supervisor on duty. I process the BRM mail every morning. If I am not there another person is trained to do the job. We work as a team and we try to cover the window so each of us has time to complete certain duties. Of course there are always days when not everything gets done, but our main focus is making sure the mail we get is all delivered, whether it is BRM, first class, whatever.

I am confused about how the Postal Service collects postage due from businesses once BRM mail is returned. Do carriers collect money on the spot? it's not clear form your blog. Isn't that expensive? It seems inefficient and outdated? Doesn't make the BRM mail expensive for the Postal Service to handle (if they are handling the postage due manually). if so, why would the Postal Service want to increase this money losing mail stream? I am just confused. Perhaps I missed the point. please clarify

Like some of the other comments, our business relies on timely responses and deadlines. After experiencing our BRM arriving 28 days after their postmarks this week I started an inquiry and complaint. I was told by USPS Consumer Affairs that BRM / first class mail isn't late or lost until it's more than 30 days old. That wasn't really a helpful solution. It looks like we must insert wording in our mailings to the effect that if you want to submit a response to our company in a timely manner, please scan and email, fill in the data online at our website, etc. - please do not use US mail.

BRM is a business killer. We send out hundreds of pieces per month with BRM returns. It takes weeks to get it back, if ever. My local post office is s a model of inefficiency and dysfunction (there are some days when there is no p/u if the carrier thinks the bin "looks heavy". Seriously.) After reading the posts below, it seems obvious the BRM is simply cast aside until whenever.

We are a CPA firm that uses the business reply service. Recently, we have not been getting the business reply mail timely. When it is not in the box, we ask at the counter for it and are told they aren't processing it that day or that we don't have any (then it appears in our box the next day). This mail is information from clients to be processed and is usually time sensitive. The current delay in this mail can cause government penalties and interest to us and our clients.
Are there rules for the timely delivery of business reply mail? This was not a problem until the last six months.
Thank you.
ESTESS & CO CPAS
P O BOX 1040
LULING LA 70070

As I sit here, we're probably waiting on 300 to 400 pieces of mail. We have not received a business reply envelope in over a week. This is the week leading to our highest volume. We will process over 500 transactions with check dates from late November when we finally get everything, that's an educated guess. This will put more pressure than necessary on our staffing. At year end, we receive more than 1000 brm responses over the course of three weeks. Instead of receiving parsed out, manageable deliverables, we will get this in lots that clog our processes. We are considering having folks put stamps on their own mail next year, but the Postal Service won't care because they're collecting first class postage either way. The PS receives the same amount of money whether a stamp or BRM , but the quality of service declines dramatically if we pay for it instead of our clients. On the bright side, since there aren't any deliverables to process, I have time to type this. Thanks for the window of opportunity. FWIW...the Burlingame, CA Post Office appears to be way more efficient than the E Palo Alto Post Office

The company I work for recently set up a QBRM account with our White River Junction Post Office only to find out they couldn't promise to deliver BRM as first class mail, yet, we pay that price plus. It has been a struggle to try and save money by using this service as the BRM are apparently NOT a priority to be sorted with first class mail. NO ONE in the postal service can answer my question if there is a written policy on " how long can the PO hold BRM before processing it?"
At this point, unless your post office can answer and make a commitment to this question, I think you will find it can take as long as they want to process this mail. We recently got back a tray of mail that had been held five days! We knew that because they had time stamped the BRM as being received at their PO five days prior to us getting them. This wasn't good for us as we are a payroll company and those envelopes contained time sheets that had to be processed before our year end!!
In my opinion the PO is losing money and customers on this BRM service. If they have to hand count all these envelopes to make sure none of them weigh over 1 oz and in the end they have counted through a tray of 400 to bill us out $2.00 in postage, they have just LOST money. Yes, that is what is happening to us.
We could save $23,000 a year in postage using this BRM service, but the customer service from the Post Office on BRM is POOR.

If the BRM is not completed someone is falsifying documents by performing the BRM reconciliation report checking that it is completed.
When that was happening in our office I sent screen shots to OIG but I never heard back.

Well, personally I think that the BRM has had its heyday in the past. But these days, there are a lot of people if not most people rely on email for speed and efficiency.
The BRM can still be effective these days if it would have to contain some sort of valuable material that cannot be sent through email. We have to stop and ponder on this a bet and do a little brainstorming. With the right people and minds at work, the solution to this problem should arise on its own.

I used to use the service but cost and lack of roi put an end to that. Although, I've heard that this type of direct marketing in the offline world does actually work for some people. I'm guessing my offer wasn't good enough or I just plain wasn't doing it right.

I used to use BRM in the past but, only for inbound orders. It's become cost prohibitive to use it for anything other than increased amount of leads that will yield a large return or for prepaid orders..
The advance of modern technology is weeding out the old ways of doing business..

I agree that it's a valuable service. As a consumer, I'd rather not spend the $0.44 to return a piece of mail to a company. For my small business, I am going to look into this service - it may increase my response rate from clients.

I think this is a very valuable service for business. Lets face it as a customer it is always much easier to send a pre-paid envelope back. I tend to find it is more of an incentive. It also enables businesses to manage their postal costings more efficiently and within their specific budgets.

As a work from home businessman, I rely heavily on BRM with clients as well as vendors. It is an extremely valuable service that I hope will continue to be provided in the future. Strong 'yes' vote from me.
Best,
Scott

We are considering just dropping BREs and asking customers to affix postage — and including a note explaining that because the USPS no longer can be counted on to deliver BREs reliably, we have had to discontinue the service — another black eye for the Post Office.

I have had nothing but problems at the Rogers Park, Chicago Post Office. When we applied for our permit we asked if we need to monitor our renewal date and were told that the post office will notify us when permit will expire (we also confirmed this service in the domestic mail manual). W'ell you guessed it. Our permit lapsed because we never received a renewal notice. After several mailings we figured out our permit expired. So leeson 1, we learned is to track your renwal date yourself. Then we paid to renew our permit and it took WEEKS to get a straight answer from anyone. We called the local branch (Rogers Park) we called downtown on Harrison St. Each time we received different answers on how to renew our permit. Eventually we sent in our payment. Spoke to numerous people at Rogers Park and received nothing but a run around. Now we have a renewed permit and sent out seed names and tests and still have not received any back after 2 weeks! What other options do I have? Is there a different service I can use? We really need BRM. Please contact me to discuss this.

BRE is first class mail -- we pay for it that way, at least. But over the last two years, the Oakland post office has been delivering our BRE's once a week or less, instead of the daily deliveries we once had (and pay for). This causes customers to complain about orders not being filled promptly and administrative headaches from getting large batches of BRE's on one day.
We have complained to the Post Office perhaps 20 times, including through the D.C. office and our Congressional office. We are always promised a call back within a day (this rarely happens, however). If we are given a cal back, we are usually told that someone is on vacation or the person is new (for two years?). I have no confidence whatsoever that this issue will ever be resolved.
We are considering just dropping BREs and asking customers to affix postage -- and including a note explaining that because the USPS no longer can be counted on to deliver BREs reliably, we have had to discontinue the service -- another black eye for the Post Office.
We are far from alone in this area with this problem. The delivery person says a lot of people complain. Before the Post Office decides how to charge differently for BREs, it needs to figure out if it can deliver the service people are buying. If we don't get the service FedEx promises (and we have switched all ground shipments to FedEx because they are much more reliable and can track delivery), we would a) be called back promptly on complaint (or have the issue resolved up front) and b) get a full refund of what we paid for shipment. This inattention to customer service, sadly, seems to create a downward spiral for the Post Office where it does not have the money to provide better service and people abandon it because it doesn't.

I commented on another post about the fact that I work in a station without a supervisor on duty. I process the BRM mail every morning. If I am not there another person is trained to do the job. We work as a team and we try to cover the window so each of us has time to complete certain duties. Of course there are always days when not everything gets done, but our main focus is making sure the mail we get is all delivered, whether it is BRM, first class, whatever. We time manage ourselves, rather than being micromanaged by management. Works well because we work well together.

I agree that you have great cause for complaint. I have forwarded your concerns and comments (including the yelp link) to the appropriate officials. I do not wish to leave specific names and telephone numbers on this post. However, if you send me your email address, I will forward you the information regarding the name and number of the station manager.
Thank you

How do I contact my postmaster? The business model is much like netflix but a niche market of educational DVDs.
Here are some of the problems we are having with our mailings. This is starting to get very frustrating as our entire business model is centered around our mail being delivered in a safe and timely fashion.
1. BRM mail is being returned up to a week and a half late. Sometimes items postmarked a week apart are arriving together. We are aware that our post office has only one person trained in handling mail. Is it sitting on a desk waiting for enough volume to be processed? Does it get processed if this person is busy or out for the week/day?
2. We are still encountering untrained and rude workers at the post office. My wife went to place money on the BRM account for the second time Monday, June 15th 2009 where the clerk did not know what to do and had an attitude. This is the SECOND TIME someone could not help my wife.
3. Our BRM mailings are under 1 ounce. We are being charged 2 ounces.
4. Our DVD's are coming damaged in the mail. It takes quite a bit of pressure to break one of these DVDs. So far we have had two broken. Is this a matter of spite?
5. I spoke to the Supervisor personally about these issues and was directed to speak to someone else since he didn't know anything about BRM.
6. There are public reviews of this same post office online at: http://www.yelp.com/biz/us-post-office---brooklyn-brooklyn . Every person who reviews this 11211 williamsburg post office asks, "WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO SHUT THIS PLACE DOWN?" people have been posting lengthy complaints about this post office since 2006. This is a booming area; is it too much to ask for reliable mail?
We have spent an enormous amount of money trying to start this business between stocking inventory, printing envelopes, programming and much more. We were under the impression via Post Office advertising and services that BRM was a professional service that could be provided to us and relied upon; afterall netflix uses it. I really don't know what to do. Will things be better if we change post offices? If so, we have to print new envelopes; this is expensive. Should I consult a laywer concerning the reimbursment of our printing costs?
I really don't know what to do. This is a pressing issue. Within one week we had 80 paying customers. Clearly this is a business that will work, but will it fail because of the post office?

I had just recently started a business that is dependent upon timely BRM. I have been running it now for the past month and have been very disappointed with what has been going on at my post office.
There seems to be one person trained for BRM. Often times it can take up to a WEEK AND A HALF between when BRM peices are postmarked and when it arrives. Sometimes BRM peices postmarked a week apart arrive together. I don't know if I should change post offices or what. My guess is that they are sitting on someones desk waiting to be processed and they take their time.

I am a Business Reply clerk. When I got to work Monday,18 May 09, I found little had been done to work the BR Mail Saturday and I had two days work to do. I told my supervisor it would take me 10 and a half hours to finish the work. He told me the Postmaster said no overtime. I ask him what he wanted to do with the mail. He said he would try to find someone to finish it up. I came in Tuesday and nothing had been done. The mail was still seting there. Delayed for another day. When service comes up against Overtime, service loses. Untill Management is held accountable for BR Mail being delayed I would not recomend it to our customers.

My husband is a Business Reply Clerk. He has worked at the PO for 32 years and watched it slowly go downhill. He is hoping that this job lasts seven more years until retirement.
They do not train people for when he is gone. Mail is given out all of the time to the customers without collecting payment when he is gone.
One of our largest accounts used to get twenty to thirty trays of BRM a day. Now they are lucky to get a half a tray. They are going down the tubes, so to speak.
I had no idea as a window clerk, that carriers did not pull this mail out. Shouldn't the machines pull it out? As a clerk who spreads mail, I never see it in the mail that I have to case up. It would be interesting to ask the carriers in our office if they see any get through, but then, we are on the west coast and we get numerous letters everyday for England. So, someone is not minding the store. We send back two to three full tubs of mail that is missent to our office every day, including Priority and Express.
I can totally see why we are a money losing company right now.

Postal Management has informed us that BRM / Postage Due mail is not a priority. More concern is needed for the window. They eliminate postage due clerk positions and have nobody trained to process this mail which is time consuming. Last Presidential election trays and trays of voter registration cards did not get processed (BRM) as a result of not having the manpower to process this mail. Postal Management is trying and causing the Postal Service to fail in order to privatize. Whoever takes over the Postal Service would be crazy to hire any postal executive that would cause their company to fail because they may cause the new one fail as well.

In my office clerks and carriers are told not to finger the mail. I have looked thru firm mailings that come in direct flat tubs and letter trays and have found BRM mail that has not been counted. I have counted 25 pieces or more in one hamper for a firm. Supervisors say do not go thru the mail you are wasting time, there is also certifieds that go thru every day, make sure you upsell at the window thou.

I am confused about how the Postal Service collects postage due from businesses once BRM mail is returned. Do carriers collect money on the spot? it's not clear form your blog. Isn't that expensive? It seems inefficient and outdated? Doesn't make the BRM mail expensive for the Postal Service to handle (if they are handling the postage due manually). if so, why would the Postal Service want to increase this money losing mail stream?
I am just confused. Perhaps I missed the point. please clarify.

The Postal Service collects money in two ways. Either through a direct deduction from the customer account or at the time of delivery. High volume customers have money on deposit with the Postal Service. The charge for the BRM pieces processed is deducted from those accounts. For lower volume or infrequent users, the Postal Service collects upon delivery. Sometimes carriers collect and sometimes the customer picks-up the mail at the office and pays at that time. The different per piece charges take into account these different processing methods and are structured to recoup Postal Service costs.

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